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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633380">Hrym Lessons</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shmeowzow/pseuds/Shmeowzow'>Shmeowzow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Divine Pulse Theory [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:41:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,226</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633380</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shmeowzow/pseuds/Shmeowzow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Byleth and her father Jeralt have made a reluctant home of Garreg Mach Monastery at Rhea's request; having lived as a mercenary her whole life, Byleth struggles to fit in to the ecclectic melting pot there at first. Another professor who she believes to share her trouble making connections fails to escape her notice. They're equally surprised to find they have many things to learn from one another. Preceding events of Your Bright Mind.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jeritza von Hrym/My Unit | Byleth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Divine Pulse Theory [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609060</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hrym Lessons</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was nearing sunset at the monastery and for the first time in weeks, I felt as if I was making real progress getting to know some of the students there. Ferdinand and Lorenz had been an incredible help that particular day, as they found out simultaneously that I knew nothing of their mutually beloved tea ceremony. I had been attempting small talk with Annette and Mercedes in the dining hall when they descended upon us in a flurry of pearl-clutching, and an insistence that we all rectify this together at once. Mercedes and Annette had been kind enough to join as well, and it had been a pleasant, productive afternoon indeed. I stopped back by the Eagle's classroom to make sure everything was in order for next lessons; as the youngest academy teacher I felt an urgent desire to prove myself worthy, even though I hadn't exactly accepted the position readily. I had felt a little railroaded by Lady Rhea, in fact, but my father assured me that there simply was no other way with her, and I should prepare myself for nothing less going forward.</p><p>Clutching my coat against the breeze as I rounded the corner to my dorms, I noticed a certain someone disappearing through the door to the training grounds, and with a smirk, I found myself changing directions to follow suit. When the large doors shut behind me, the air left my body in surprise– nothing was there but shadows dancing around the wall-sconces, and the echo of my entry against limestone. I was certain I had seen that familiar white cloak and ashen, almost silvery locks pass through there before me, and so I took a few clicking steps forward, glancing around at every pillar and torch one-by-one. My gaze fell upon a large, purple shadow between a combat mannequin and the wall behind it, but it shifted away from the light as soon as my eyes had found it. Smiling to myself, pleased I hadn't been wrong after all, I called to no one, "Lurking as usual, Professor Hrym?"</p><p>Complete silence met my words, so I continued forward, toward the mannequin and pillars, trying to drive him out. He was always so evasive with conversation, but no one got the better of me when I was determined. From the first day I had laid eyes on him, Jeritza Von Hrym had made me maniacally curious– if for no other reason than it seemed to agitate him more than any other person I had come across in my life. I decided perhaps poking a little harder might draw him out– after all, up to this point I had only gone easy on him in our interractions. "I wonder if the reason you refuse to entertain company unless in physical combat is because you lack the ability to win a duel with words, perhaps?"</p><p>I heard a large creaking behind me and spun around when I thought Jeritza to have left, but the door remained shut, unmoved. A small cry escaped me as my knees, and arms met the stone below when my legs had been suddenly swept out from under me. Jeritza's slow, monotonous drawl filled the room between us in reply, "Do you refuse to spar with me because you're only adept in duels of language?"</p><p>Rebounding as quickly as possible, I rose to face Jeritza Von Hrym, not even one silken strand of hair out of place post-assault. I had to suppose he was a director of combat there for that reason. In truth, I did doubt my ability to defeat the man in a fight, but that's not the reason I wouldn't spar with him. Wiping the dirt away from my clothing and arms, I cleared my throat before crossing them over my chest. "Of course not. I don't want to fight you because you clearly want to, but in all other matters you're entirely rude and untoward. Why would I entertain something you enjoy when you do not offer me the same courtesy?"</p><p>To my abject mortification, what little of Jeritza's pallid face turned the lightest shade of pink, but his gray eyes remained steely and unreadable when he remarked, "I've mentioned I'm not here to make friends, nor do I care enough about you to bother being actively rude. Your persistence in the matter merely...tires me."</p><p>The wind howled through the open roof overhead, and gooseflesh rose on my arms as I noticed the man in front of me turn his sharp features upward and breathe deeply, as if he were smelling it for rain, or something else I couldn't imagine. "What if I told you I think fighting with a mask on is cowardly, and my refusal hinges on its removal?"</p><p>Lowering his chin, Hrym's eyes were frustratingly vague and the missing features only served to make his body language that much more impossible for me to decipher. "That is your prerogative."</p><p>I knew it would he a long-shot to get my hands on it, but I playfully jumped toward the tall, lean fencing instructor, pretending to reach for his mask outright. I had expected him to react negatively, of course, but I didn't expect him to react sloppily; he made a low, startled sound as one hand flew to his face to protect it, and the other met with my shouler trying to push me back. I leaned out of it and sidestepped, causing Jeritza to lose his balance and stumble to one knee on the ground. I hadn't wanted it to happen quite this way, but if professor Hrym wanted a fight from me and nothing else, now was a better time than any to bring it to him. </p><p>I sprung onto his back while he was trying to recover, but Jeritza was prepared for just that. Sinking us both backward he used the leverage I had all but handed him against me and I flew up over his head, side meeting with a hard knee on the way down. I cried out at the impact, but did what I could to ignore the pain as I fruitlessly attempted to stop Hrym from grappling me to the limestone underneath him. I had to take a break to gather my thoughts and breathe once he had my wrists encircled over my head in his large, spindly fingers. "Do you concede?"</p><p>Jeritza was breathing deeply, but not straining himself in the slightest. His dark hair ribbon had become lost when I launched myself at him, and for the first time since we had met, I saw those delicate, pale waves form a wider halo around his face as they cascaded down his shoulders. I found it disarming, how angelic such a simple action had rendered his appearance, and saw myself trying to memorize every detail of that image, forgetting to answer him completely. I was oddly compelled to touch his hair in that moment, to see if it was truly as soft as it looked, but he still had me restrained, aspirating as if it took no real effort on his part to do so. "What makes you hide such a face?"</p><p>I expected he might flush again as he had so easily before, but he reacted naught; even his body remained still against mine, still holding my arms captive and useless above me. I could feel the heat from his breath on my cheeks when he answered just the same as any time I had goaded him on the subject before. "It is, as always, above the realm of your concern."</p><p>Wiggling a little to see how he would react– his weight shifted further down and his grip of me tightened– I attempted, "If I concede, would you have some honor and take that stupid thing off for just one fight? I do not believe you to be disfigured–"</p><p>Where they clutched, Jeritza's fingers impressed a painful power I wasn't sure I had been expecting from professor Hrym, master of combat, or not. The slight aching that developed in its wake drew a frantic peep out of my chest, at the sound of which Jeritza's whole body seemed to stiffen, muscles tightening in a way I found alarming. He near spat, "You will never know my face, do you understand?"</p><p>His interruption echoed around us loudly, and Jeritza glanced elsewhere, listening to make sure no passersby had taken interest. I used the brief reprieve of his attention against him, drawing my legs up between us and kicking him away from my body. Both of us scrambled backward, taking stances against each other on either side of the room. Professor Hrym seemed eerily confident, grim even, when he spoke. "You will not win hand-to-hand against me."</p><p>I found myself smiling, but didn't relax my stance except to toss my weapons and coat aside. "You're not certain that's true. You wouldn't want to fight me so badly if you were."</p><p>Jeritza tsked chidingly, removing his heavier outer layers, and held a hand outward to formally goad me toward him. "Let us discover how certain I am."</p><p>I raised my hands and used gusting magic to try and catch Jeritza off-guard from a safe distance, but he sidestepped it widely with great speed, and used the opening to rush me outright. I always had a backup plan when someone countered an opening in that way, especially someone taller, and I dropped to my haunches, turning a shoulder to make contact with Jeritza's stomach, then springing upward to topple him forward, over my head. He landed on his knees, and began to quickly unfold back to his feet, but I caught him with my gust this time, forcing him on his back, where I readily pounced to hold him there. Jeritza grappled for my wrists, but I reared back out of his grasp, pooling all of my weight back and down onto his narrow hips. I felt his whole body go rigid again upon this action, just as it had a bit earlier, when I had made a small noise of pain. I grinned wickedly to myself then, because in spite of his lack of willingness to employ language, professor Hrym was teaching me more about himself than he knew. Taking a gamble, I lowered my hand to rest in the space where Jeritza's chest narrowed into his throat, the slightest of threats, and whispered, "Do you concede?"</p><p>I watched the moonlight newly flooding the area through the open ceiling make shadows and light dance strikingly around the dip of Jeritza's adams apple into his neck, and back upward again. His steely gaze remained vacant, but actively avoided my attempts to capture it with mine. He seemed to be thinking, or focusing very hard on remaining still at that moment, so I dipped my hips lower again, sliding my groin downward and over his own, where Jeritza's body continued to betray things to me that I didn't need words to understand. He breathed in very sharply, chest rising to pause, before shakily falling back down again. I continued to watch the skin of his neck dip and bob like a hungry predator as he struggled to speak, managing to choke out, "I do not."</p><p>I was almost certain even in such a short time together that I had the fencing instructor's number, so to speak; I had found something that disarmed him. I tried not to smile as if I knew his lack of concession to me at that moment was a mistake, it was time to show Jeritza why it was such. I slid my hand forward slowly, thin fingers curling dangerously around what expanse of Hrym's neck I could grasp with just the one, and relished the ways in which that small action contorted what little of the man's features I was able to view, but not because he was suffering. No, I had been able to surmise with some context and a little bit of charmed guessing, that professor Jeritza Hrym was aroused by pain, and the perceived pain of others. To think of it more plainly, he liked it rough. Unluckily for him, I held a great tolerance and propensity for brutality beneath the sheets, with the proper type of partner. I intended to illustrate this to Hrym, if it meant punishing him for hiding his face, because something deep within me held the feeling that the reason he wore a mask was far from casual. </p><p>I gripped his neck just a touch tighter and watched the skin become flushed up his jawline, toward his lips, making them pout and probably sting. He seemed to be focusing all of his attention on not looking at me, not acknowledging my pressing gaze, and so I dipped my groin down into his again, this time hard enough to draw soft little noises from both of us; mine high and melodic, his clipped and frantic. I grasped the swanlike stretch of skin harder, clawing at his boundaries, daring him to react, or respond, but all he did was try to regulate his breathing around the pressure of my fingers, eyes wide and growing strained from lack of oxygen. Finally Ioosening my grasp, my hand wandered to find one of his, lying dangerous and totally unutilized at his sides. I gripped his much larger fingers and brought them to rest upon my décolletage, urging them upward, but leaving the final decision down to the man beneath me. The air had flooded out of and back into him violently when I released his neck, and his chest was still rising and falling rapidly as his fingers shook, clammy against my skin. Smiling wickidly, I whispered to him, "I know what you want to do."</p><p>Those long fingers spasmed before finally closing around my throat, hard. I let the sensation of his grasp overtake me, leaning into his hand, restricting my blood flow and intake of breath further, aiding him. He seemed wholly surprised by my reaction and to my dismay, he rose up parallel to my body, and covered the remainder of my neck with his other hand, fully encircling it now. The head-rush brought on by his touch was intense, and I found myself gasping out a few tinny little strangled noises. Professor Hrym's eyes widened and he himself let out an awkward explusion of sound and breath that I felt hot on my already burning cheeks, tightening his grip further, pale knuckles whitening with the strain of it all.</p><p>There was no longer any question over Hrym's arousal– I could feel that mound of flesh hard and stark against my inner thigh, but I was too distracted to continue teasing him there. I could feel numbness prickling at my lips, and cheeks, involuntarily erupting a few more soft, choking sighs. Just as I raised my fingers up to his grasp to insist he give me a break to regain the breath I would require to stay conscious, Jeritza Hrym claimed my swollen, stinging lips with his own, forcing what little sustinence I'd had in my lungs out and away. As soon as the warm little slivers of flesh made contact he started moaning softly into me, begging for further entry with his tongue. I granted it to him, still trying to ease his large hands down from my neck with no success. I could feel my fingers going cold, less dextrous– If I didn't get him to lighten up soon, I wasn't entirely sure what would happen, and the thought alone made my heart jump into my throat beneath his grasp. He seemed to sense this, breaking our kiss for a few moments to regard me intently as I whispered fragmented, "Je–ritz–a..."</p><p>I thought his eyes might flutter all the way to the back of his skull at how pitifully strangled his name sounded leaving my lips, and his grip on my neck did loosen finally. His fingers traced little lines down my arms as I noisily regulated some semblance of rhythm in my breaths, one coming to rest at the small of my back, the other under my bottom. Before I knew it he had begun lifting us both up onto our feet, but I found when I tried to stand, no weight would settle in my thighs or knees, and they kept buckling. I hadn't really regained control of myself when we arose, and I was suddenly feeling more lightheaded than I knew was healthy. My eyes shut tight against the sensation, vision becoming cloudy with darkness and erupting in sporadic bright sparks, it was immediately painful as if I'd had a headache all day that was now burning a white hot climax inside my skull. I thought Jeritza had mumbled something, but when I tried to open my eyes and respond, I suddenly felt as if I had been launched into the sky, weightless, or thrown down a tunnel with no end below me; everything was rendered black, and I felt like I was floating.</p><hr/><p>When I awoke inside of a low-lit, cool, damp room I didn't recognize, I slowly eased myself into a sitting position and rubbed my stinging eyes, glancing around. There wasn't anything remarkable about the space, except that it smelled...distinctly and singularly masculine, as if only one person and their things had ever occupied it. Jeritza emerged from the shadows, not really startling me– I recalled all of the events leading up to my loss of consciousness, and was ill at ease for it. Resisting the urge to feel my neck for lingering pain, I noticed a glass of water on a small table beside the bed I was upon, but I didn't trust it. Keeping my voice even and low, I asked, "Where are we?"</p><p>Professor Hrym remained silent but advanced further, taking the cup in his hand and swallowing a fair amount of liquid before handing it to me, almost eagerly. "Do not concern yourself with geography, drink."</p><p>My desperate thirst outweighed my mistrust for the eccentric man and I accepted his offer, greedily taking the cool liquid in a little too quickly. An involuntary sigh passed my lips when I swallowed it down, and without thought I wiped at my face with the back of my hand, childishly. Jeritza was watching me intently with those piercing,  blue-gray stones ensconced in porcelain, and I found it hard to look away from them, or even stir as he took the cup to replace it back on the little table, and sat down next to me on the bed. Still captured by his gaze, I remained unmoving as his hand rose to my neck again, only caressing it gently, this time. I noticed he hadn't returned my coat to my body after we had moved from the training grounds, and gooseflesh rose on my arms and throat at the cold sensation of his fingers on the burning skin beneath them. "There will be bruising. It is my fault."</p><p>My fingers found his on my neck, tickling my jawline awkwardly, almost preciously. "Not entirely. When you play dangerous games, you chance dangerous winnings. I led you into what happened. I should have conducted myself more...carefullly."</p><p>Still regarding me as intensely as ever, he retracted his fingers from my neck, hand falling into my lap, where it continued to lay unmoving. "You must teach me."</p><p>The strange spell his eyes had over me seemed to melt momentarily, as I tried to figure out exactly what he meant. When I asked, he seemed to think before answering as well. "To play dangerous games, as you said."</p><p>Some things gelled in my mind as I put together what professor Hrym was suggesting, and I couldn't believe he had let me walk into a position of power over him so easily; I had no intention of wasting it– none. "I can show you what you ask, and I'm willing to risk the fact that you don't have practice playing carefully, <em>if </em>you're willing to remove your mask for me."</p><p>Jeritza's eyes narrowed, face contorting in an odd grimace that gave him a sharp dimple that had excaped my notice before that moment. I expected him to refuse outright, but clearly there was more going on behind the curtain than I understood, because he said, "I will remove it on one condition."</p><p>I knew the surprise showed on my face and I just stopped myself from audibly gasping, slowing myself just in time for it to sound like a natural intake of breath. "Oh?" I all but squeaked.</p><p>"You must not look upon my face. I will allow you to touch it, but I cannot let you set eyes on it, do you understand?"</p><p>I almost wondered what the point of any of this was then, but I was desperately curious, and touching his face was a small step I was willing to make concessions to take. I was also interested in unfolding how well he took to being instructed in these ways, seeing as he obviously had a natural enjoyment of them. "Am I to wear a blindfold, then?"</p><p>Without thought, almost as if he already knew where the conversation was headed, he removed the wide, dark hair ribbon he must have retrieved from the training grounds shortly after I passed out, and those ashen blonde sheets of silk graced his visage and shoulders in that same, oxymoronic halo that held me captivated earlier in the night. I sighed softly through my nose, taking the image in a second time. Truly, Jeritza was a beautiful man, even when I couldn't see all of him. Turning slowly, I allowed him to softly tie his ribbon around my eyes, behind my hair in a neat, secure little knot. I waited as Jeritza rose, and thought maybe he was removing some of his clothing when I heard fabric hitting the ground, then a smaller, more solid noise, and he was back on the bed with me again. I gasped a little when he took my hand, not expecting this to all be going so quickly. He seemed eager for something, but I wasn't entirely sure it was what I thought it was. </p><p>My fingers found the soft, baby-fine hairs on his cheeks first and I gasped again, not expecting them to feel the way they did, smoothe as the bridge of a rabbit's nose. His lips were rough from sunlight, fighting, and probably frowning, but the expanse of skin usually covered in mask was wholly different, and remarkably decadent to the touch. I pulled him closer to me, running my thumbs along his hard, protruding cheekbones, trying to fill in the gaps in knowledge of his face I possessed with my hands. A sigh shuddered out of Jeritza when my touch extended to each eyebrow, which were also impossibly smooth as they arched over those gaunt sockets. I could feel his lids and lashes twitch as the tips of my fingers grazed them going past, and then my hands settled to rest upon his clavicle lightly– I shuddered to notice he had removed his tunic, finding taut skin there, instead of fabric.</p><p>My vision was swaddled in darkness, but I knew exactly what I planned to do next, and where to move. Starting into Jeritza's lap a little clumsily, he startled me by scooping me up and along, placing me where I had intended, holding me steady with long fingers splayed across my upper and lower back. I could hear Jeritza's breath coming measured in and out of his nose and I leaned forward to launch my assault...or, lesson rather. Our lips met again, and it took me a moment to let the electricity I seemed to feel fade as he moved his against mine with slow, measured decadence. I pointedly traced the bottom of his pout with my tongue and he shivered, letting escape a small sigh that allowed me to invade his head completely. His arms tightened around me, fingers pressing painfully hard in some places, reminding me what my main objective was. Returning my tongue to Jeritza's lower lip, I sucked it into my mouth, massaging it for a moment before gripping it inside of my teeth, just so. Jeritza's body went rigid, which I took as forthcoming, and closed my teeth just a little harder, a quick little snap, before relenting and pressing a kiss to where they had just been. </p><p>My heart was hammering against my ribs already, and I felt the haggard rise and fall of Jeritza's bare chest with every unmeasured breath he took. "Again," he whispered before adding, "Show me more."</p><p>Nodding through the sightlessness, I leaned forward to capture his lips again, moving to the corner where mouth became cheek, and bit down softly there. Kissing gently up his jawline my teeth clenched down again, on the sharp angle under his ear and above his neck. Jeritza's frequent sighs had become little moans with every kiss and nip, I could just feel his manhood starting to rise up against my leg and I placed one hand to clasp around his throat. Pulling the soft flesh of one earlobe into my mouth, I began to play at it with my tongue as my fingers slowly tightened. Jeritza's murmurings intensified, letting out a low, clipped howl when I took after the flesh of his ear with my teeth as well, pushing his boundaries with the pressure I applied. I felt his mound twitch beneath me, and rearranged one hand into a claw behind his shoulder, digging in with my nails and raking my groin against his in tandem with their sharp trail down his back. </p><p>I tried to imagine his wild expressions as I moved my mouth lower, to the side of his neck I no longer grasped, and lay the faintest of kisses there. Jeritza swallowed audibly, bracing for me to bite him, but I just laved that silken space between his shoulder and ear with my tongue, and sloppy kisses. I could feel one large hand moving to encompass the back of my neck, while the other grasped my full bottom, lightly at first, then painfully– I let out a peep of surprise against his throat before taking the flesh there into my teeth, and biting down harder than I had before. A haggard noise tore from Jeritza's chest and he too gripped harder still, and I could acutely feel that the points where his fingers were would bruise colorful little polka dots on in their wake. He thrust his hips upward sharply, forcing his erection so close I could feel it between my folds through my clothing, friction sending me reeling. Jeritza seemed to be getting more confident, because he barely gave pause before rearing into me again, harder still, and raking his own fingernails through my scalp, down to rest in angry little crescents between my shoulder blades. I could no longer control the mewlings he was drawing out of me with his forceful touch, and I again worried where we were.</p><p>Hrym somehow sensed this, violent undertones taking a slight breather as he delicately whispered into my ear, "No amount of screaming will betray us here."</p><p>I was frightened suddenly by the content of his words, the fact that I couldn't see– Jeritza seemed to have been waiting to fully commandier control between us, because his grasp on my neck and ass tightened– mirroring my actions from earlier, he bent to take the tender flesh of my neck into his teeth with great force. Recoiling further into his groin, I cried out to distract myself, alleviate the acute rush of sharp pain, "G-goddess!"</p><p>After sliding the warmth of his tongue and kissing the area he had bitten almost sweetly, his voice rumbled low and dangerous out of his throat. "She will not hear you here, either."</p><p>I gasped, startled but for a few brief moments, because I felt our bodies begin to fall, but I remained fully enveloped in Jeritza's arms as we landed back against the bedding. There was something different about his body language as he held me there, something more animalistic than before, and with no warning he began violently hammering my hips and warm, moistening womanhood along his swollen groin while his other hand held my head against his clavicle, slightly painfully. It would have hurt more, but combined with the lucious friction professor Hrym was building up at my center, that and all sensation became simply divine. I couldn't even be bothered to continue his lesson, keep pushing his boundaries and showing him the ropes of being a dangerous lover– I was wholly surprised, and completely overtaken with an orgasm so intense, I seemed to lose control of my legs, spasming wildly over top of Jeritza, clenching my sharp nails into his thick shoulders, sides, every bit of skin I could reach, and raking them down with aggressive pressure. "Huh–ha–ah!"</p><p>Jeritza's honey soaked drawl pitched higher, echoing back at our bodies from the stone walls, and then his arms closed so tightly around me it restricted my breathing quite alarmingly. My ribs and jaw began to ache against Jeritza's firm upper body as his hips thrust upward haphazardly just a few more times. Finally he eased his boa-like hold on me and I rolled away, panting, moving to remove his ribbon from my eyes without thinking. I startled myself when it fell, and I realized I was looking upon Jeritza's delicate features, maskless. His eyes were closed, hand covering part of his face, but I had still seen all of it for a breathtaking moment; it struck me as frustratingly familiar. My fingers quickly found my eyes, whispering, "Jeritza? Your ribbon came lose."</p><p>I felt him rise suddenly, hinging at the waist to make sure I hadn't looked at him, and to reach for his mask, I assumed. I found getting to see him again oddly gratifying, relishing the satiated glow behind his normally washed out expression, juxtaposed against the white porcelain object that obscured his upper-face. I intended to get to the bottom of why he employed it, even if I was never able to place his identity. Swiftly, sweetly, Jeritza drew me into his grasp, embracing me tightly, pressing his reddened lips into mine. Our tongues fought a romantic death rattle that struck a little too close to the deep part of my heart. I quieted such nonsense with a vengeance, something about the man I was with didn't add up, and I couldn't allow his affections to distract me from that, however pleasant their effect. </p><p>Jeritza slowly leaned us both down horizontal again, and he pulled my back flush to the warmth of his lithe form. "We will sleep now. Know that I will wake if you act suspiciously."</p><p>Trying not to sigh, letting the thought of removing the mask while he lie spent and unaware pass away from my mind half-baked. Instead, I nuzzled my head underneath his chin, and into the pillow, and moved to do as he commanded. "We will continue our...lessons?"</p><p>I found the soft, upward lilt of questioning in Jeritza's voice damnably endearing. Chastely kissing the part of his arm hanging over my shoulders, nibbling it just slightly, I replied, "At your insistence."</p>
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